Farrago nova epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami ad alios, et aliorum ad hunc: admixtis quibusdam, quas scripsit etiam adolescens
| Author | ERASMUS, Desiderius (1466-1536) |
| Typographer | Johannes Froben |
| Place and date of printing | Basel, ottobre 1519 |
| Price | 6500 € |
Folio; solid 17th century full-calf, spine in compartments richly decorated with floral ornaments and gilt title, coloured endpapers, red edges (part of the sides e foot of the spine skillfully repaired); 398, (12) pp. Title-page beautifully illustrated with a woodcut border by Urs Graf, already used for the 1513 Adagia’s edition (cf. F. Hieronymus, Basler Buchillustration 1500 bis 1545, Basel, 1984, pp. 120-121 and 176), large historiated initial on p. 3 within an ornamental woodcut border, large printer’s mark on the verso of the last leaf. Some very small unobstrusive round wormholes throughout the volume, faint small waterstain in the inner margin of the first leaves, but a very good copy with wide margins.
RARE FIRST EDITION of the first substantial collection of letters written and received by Erasmsus. Among the correspondent: Guillaume Budé, Christophe Longueil, Willibald Pirckheimer, John Colet, Fausto Anderlini, Philipp Melanchthon, Petrus Mosellanus, Martin Luther, Ulrich Hutten, Thomas More, Johannes Oecolampadius, Eobanus Hessus and Robert Gaguin.
«Erasmus’s response to the Reuchlin controversy was a purpose-built compilation of letters, published by Froben under the copy-editing responsibility of Beatus Rhenanus – the Farrago nova epistolarum D. Erasmi Roterodami ad alios et aliorum ad hunc: admixtis quibusdam quas scripsit etiam adolescens (Basel, October 1519)… The Farrago volume artfully organises carefully selected letters (including some ‘juvenile’ correspondence, as the title indicates) with a number of important contemporary agendas in mind. They are characteristically agendas which converge on the practice of humane letters and bonae litterae, particularly in England, under a humanistically educated Prince who supports Europe-wide peace, and the growing tide of theological reform with whose successful challenge to traditional theology and theological institutions Reuchlin and Luther were becoming increasingly strongly associated. Any such analysis has to begin with a reorganisation of the component letters in the Farrago volume, by dismantling Allen’s literal-mindedly chronological arrangement in favour of the organisation within the Farrago volume itself. A number of strong, topical agendas re-emerge immediately: a series of exchanges with Budé on the importance of Greek studies; Erasmus’s educational programme, as implemented in England, and his scholarly relationship with a circle of public servants around Cardinal Wolsey associated with the ‘universal peace’ signed in 1518 (Colet, More, Tunstall, Fisher and Wolsey); scholarly correspondence with the Royal English Secretary Ammonius; the Reuchlin/Luther debates and strong support for their arguments coming out of England… Erasmus’s exchanges of letters with the English humanist community, printed at the very centre of the Farrago volume, refer casually and positively to Reuchlin and his writings, as part of the ‘rebirth’ of Latin, Greek and Hebrew letters which they believed was restoring an explicitly Christian learning… Three months after the appearance of Reuchlin’s Illustrium virorum epistolae, Erasmus wrote a long letter of carefully judged support for Reuchlin, to Jacob van Hoogstraten, the inquisitor vigorously pursuing the Hebraist. This letter was rushed into print as the penultimate item in the Farrago volume. It establishes the absolutely contemporary moment of the volume’s appearance, and recapitulates the controversy so as to propose a spirit of enlightened compromise amongst the antagonists… The Farrago volume is not just cautiously pro-Reuchlin. It is also self-consciously pro-Luther, in a highly specific, urbane, scholarly vein. Particular care has been taken here by Erasmus in the choice of letters, to and from himself, which refer to Luther and his writings. A letter from Luther himself to Erasmus testifies to the reformer’s respect and admiration for the great humanist... What needs to be noted is the way in which familiarity (in the epistolae sense of cordial communality of learned interests, and affection based on shared study rather than personality) shades and tempers the debate… The most telling letter included in the Farrago collection of epistolae is Erasmus’s reply to Luther’s above, which by the time that volume appeared had already seen publication in Peter Mosellanus’s Oratio de ratione disputandi volume (July 1519)… Indeed, by the time Erasmus’s Farrago volume came out in the autumn, its author probably already knew that the care he had taken there to choreograph his own religious and political moderation – particularly in relation to Luther — was to no avail. Nevertheless, the Farrago volume was a runaway best-seller. By February 1520 Erasmus told Budaeus that Froben was asking for a second edition (and Erasmus was proposing tweeking the editing to contain the volume’s impact)» (L. Jardin, Before Clarissa: Erasmus, ‘Letters of Obscure Men’, and Epistolary Fictions, in: “Self-Presentation and Social Identification. The Rhetoric and Pragmatics of Letter Writing in Early Modern Times”, T. Van Houdt, J. Papy, G. Tournoy & C. Matheeussen, eds., Leuven, 2002, pp. 385-404).
VD16, E-2938. Adams, E-851. I. Bezzel, Erasmusdrucke des 16. Jahrhunderts in bayerischen Bibliotheken, Stuttgart, 1979, nr. 1017. Bibliotheca Erasmiana. Répertoire des oeuvres d’Érasme, Nieuwkoop, 1961, p. 99; L.-E. Halkin, Erasmus ex Erasmo, Aubel, 1983, pp. 69-88.
FEATURED BOOKS
Autore: COLLODI, Carlo (1826-1890)Tipografo: Compagnia Durium su concessione della casa R. Bemporad
Dati tipografici: Milano, 1933
Autore: RABELAIS, François (1494?-1553)-ELLOPOSCLERON, Huldrich (i.e. Johann Fischart,ca. 1546-1590)Tipografo: Bernard Jobin
Dati tipografici: Strassburg, 1600
Autore: ERASMUS, Desiderius (1466-1536)Tipografo: Johannes Froben
Dati tipografici: Basel, ottobre 1519
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